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Kings to 'put it right'

Tue, 02 Jul 2013 14:08

Kings Director of Rugby Alan Solomons has appealed to his players to take the opportunity against the Stormers to make up for their showing against the Bulls last weekend.

Solomons was incredibly disappointed by his side's performance at Loftus and hopes that his young team will have learned a lot from the loss and take it forward into their clash with the Stormers.

Solomons told this website: "What we learned was that we had a lapse in concentration and in three minutes they scored three tries.

"We were fast asleep and before we looked around Akona Ndungane had taken the quick thrown-in, a bit of inter-passing and they were over.

"Two absolutely fundamental defensive errors, which were totally out of system and that was the consequence," said Solomons.

The Kings host the Stormers in Port Elizabeth and Solomons knows that the challenge will not get any easier for his side as they prepare to take on a side that demolished the high-flying Cheetahs last weekend.

"It is not going to get any easier. We are playing the top three South African franchises.

"I know that the Cheetahs have done very well but the truth is the Stormers, the Bulls and the Sharks are the top three South African franchises," Solomons mentioned.

The side will see no changes expect for the potential return of experienced lock Steven Sykes.

"We have kept the same side because what we felt was we want to give these players the opportunity to put things right.

The time off has been long and for a side that does not have any Springboks, these players spent a month without any sort of match practice which Solomons felt was a decisive factor in the outcome in Pretoria.

"We haven't played for a month and that makes an enormous difference to a side that hasn't played at this level and a bulk of the Bulls players have been involved in the Springbok camp even if they didn't play in the Tests and that was an enormous difference.

"Having a month off, for us at this stage, is quite a long time and that was the telling factor and we just had lapses in concentration," he added.

A tough week always follows a loss like the Kings experienced and having to tackle the Stormers means that preparation is key and they are going to have to improve in a number of areas.

"The big thing that we have worked on is our set-piece. It wasn't good against the Bulls so we have had a bit of a focus on getting that right.

"Our error rate was far far too high and we made far too many mistakes. Handling errors, knock-ons, forward passes and we always work on our skills so I think it was, as I say, a case of being a little rusty," the former Stormers coach said.